The latest Sam story

So I know I need to start writing the things that Sam and Ellie say down so I figured I'd hurry and blog it right now while I was thinking about it.

Yesterday I picked Sam up from school and as he was getting into the car his teacher told me that a girl kissed him on the cheek as he was leaving. His teacher asked Sam if he thought it was gross and he said NO! As he proceeded to tell me about school he told me that he hadn't been kissed once but 5 TIMES by the same girl. He also told me that on the next day she was also going to bring him a red gum ball. I asked Sam what her name was and he said he didn't know. I said that you should probably ask her and he replied with the following:

"Yeah and then we will get married soon and have 8 kids and buy a new house, but I won't have any hair."

I replied, " why won't you have any hair?"

Sam - "Did dad have hair when he was little?"

Me - "Yes"

Sam - " oh no! I'm going to lose all of my hair!"

He is so funny! I can't get enough of him! :)

The New Addition

We have recently added a new addition to our family. He is about 9 weeks old and very cute. Yes, he is a lot of work - but I'm mentally in a better place than I was the first time we tried the dog thing. He is a miniature australian shepherd - bi blue merle and we named him Cooper. The kids are in heaven! :)

Halloween 2010

So I know I am horrible about blogging but I figured I'd hurry and post some pics from Halloween. The kids had a great time. Ellie picked up on the door to door thing a lot faster than Sam did at her age. It was cold but luckily we missed the rain. If you can't tell Ellie was Belle and Sam was a green Power Ranger.

Problems watching the video

If you are having problems watching the video here is link to my facebook page with the video.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1585210603789&ref=mf

Brooke :)

Checkpoint Tracker National Championship in Moab 2010

Drew's team took 8th place in the Coed 4 person division.

3 miles of river boarding - 30 minutes

25 miles of flat water kayaking - 4 hours

Treking and Orienteering on Poison Spider Mesa - 6 hours

Biking - road from Potash to Slick Rock, Slick Rock trail and orienteering course, Slick rock to La Sals, La Sals to home - 13.5 hours

24 hours total! :)

Sam is 5

I can't believe my little butter's is 5 years old! Sam is the sweetest most sensitive little guy I know and I am so grateful for that. He always wants to make sure that everyone is happy. If you compliment someone he makes sure he compliments everyone else so they don't feel left out. I love his random loves and hugs and his tender smiles. If Sam could be anything right now I'm sure he would tell you he'd be a Power Ranger with an Omnitrix watch (Ben 10 toy). He loves to work on his reading and counting. He is also a great little bike rider (just like his dad). He can't wait to start racing next month! He loves the color red and everything Utah (we brain washed him early). Sam is also a pretty good soccer player when he's not fighting pretend bad guys or flying like an airplane on the field. He loves his sister so much and I have to remind him every day that he can't wake her up from her nap to play.

This year Sam celebrated his birthday the whole month almost (he's taking after his Nana Jojo). This was the first year I gave him a party for just friends. It was small and he loved it. Water games, decorating their own cupcakes, and presents - and everyone was still happy at the end of the party - success! We also had our normal family swim party. He wanted a Ben 10 birthday which was a little bit of a challenge since I didn't even know what Ben 10 was, but I was able to produce a Humungousaur cake.

Filling their water guns for a water fight.

Decorating their own cupcakes to take home.

Yes - we got him a guinea pig. He named him Spike.

Berg figured out the candy thing pretty fast - so cute!

Jackpot! :)

The cake

Pictures of the Kids

So I decided the other day that I was going to try and take the kids pictures this year instead of paying to have them done. I still haven't decided if I'm going to have someone else take them. I think I was able to get a couple of ok ones, but I still don't know enough to get the exact look I want. Plus, I swear the kids always smile better and photograph easier when I'm not taking the picture. I can't believe Sam is already 5 and Ellie is almost 3 - it has gone by way too fast! I'll post pics from Sam's birthday later. :)

Sam Riding with No Training Wheels

At the end of July beginning of August Sam decided he wanted to ride his bike without the training wheels. He seriously just hopped on the bike and started riding. Here is a video from that night. First thing he said to Drew was "Dad now I can start racing with you!" - he is so dang cute! :)

Round Valley & Solitude Midweek Series

Here are some of my pics from two of Drew's last races. I swear I'm going to get caught up on my blogging one of these days. :)

Butte 100 Results

As a follow up to my previous post - they finally posted results for the 100 milers.

79 people started the day but only 33 finished!

Ty came in 18th place with a time of 12:42:20

Drew came in 19th place with a time of 12:42:24

Way to go guys!!!! :)

Butte 100

This last weekend was great. We went to Butte, Montana for a 100 mile mountain bike race for Drew. We drove up with our friends Gigi and Ty - it was a great little rode trip. Friday we rode the last part of the course that the boys were going to be riding the next day. We woke up Saturday morning at 4 am for a 6 am start time - way too early for me! Gigi and I were able to see the 100 milers start and then make it to Aid Station #1. There were so many mosquitos there it was ridiculous. The boys were already hurting when they got there (about 24 miles in) so I was a little nervous. After Aid Station #1 we made it back to see the 50 milers start. I was surprised with how many people had made the trip for the race. After they left Gigi and I decided to skip trying to find Aid Station 2 - 4 because we really had no idea how to get there. The race was pretty unorganized - especially from a supporter standpoint. They didn't get any kind of map or mileage break down and only received pretty confusing instructions about the course directions. They handed out directions to some of the Aid Stations for supporters but the directions were wrong and everyone was scrabbling to figure out where to go. Gigi and I were driving around all day - it seemed like in circles. By Aid Station #7 Drew was hurting pretty bad. I mentioned that the trail starts to go up right down the street and he gave me the look of death. They said it felt like they had been going up hill ALL DAY. They did amazing and I'm so proud of them and everyone else that raced. I can't even imagine what it would be like. I heard a lot of people say that it was the hardest race they have ever done. They still haven't posted the final results yet but I think Drew and Ty finished a little over 12 hours. Way to go guys - you are AMAZING!

Draper, Deer Valley, and Solitude Races

I decided to put all of my pictures together from these races into a short little slideshow. It has been so much easier to create the slideshows then to resize all of my pics - sorry if you don't like videos. I just realized as I was typing this that the Solitude race was part of the Mid-Week Series - oops! Drew finished in 2nd place in both the Draper and Deer Valley Races and I'm not sure what he placed at Solitude. We just had a wonderful weekend in Butte, Montana where Drew just raced in a 100 mile mountain bike race. He did AMAZING. I'll get some pictures posted soon.

California in June

Not only did we go to Hawaii, but we were also able to go to California with Drew's family in June. We started out with Drew's immediate family and Grandma and Grandpa Anderson at Disneyland. It was so fun. Sam was the perfect age because he didn't need a nap and everything was still so "magical" for him. Ellie liked it as well, but she was a little strung out by the 3rd day. She gets a little snippy when she doesn't get her naps (so do I). Sam LOVED the Jedi training and was so excited when he was chosen (took 2 tries). Ellie loved all of the princesses and Minnie Mouse but made sure you knew that she didn't like Goofy.

After Disneyland we drove to Oceanside to spend the rest of the weekend with the rest of the Anderson's. Grandma and Grandpa rented a beach house for the entire family for Christmas. It was so much fun and the kids had so much playing with all of their cousins. We were also able to go to SeaWorld while we were there. We had an amazing time and loved it all. Thank you so much Dave and Joni and Grandma and Grandpa! When I was going through pictures I realized I didn't get pictures of everyone - sorry! We need to swap pictures. :)

I realized as I was putting together the slideshows today that all I have in my itunes is Jason Mraz. I'm going to have to get some other music. :)

Chris and Zale's Wedding in Hawaii

I have been horrible about updating my blog so I'm just going to try and do a couple of the main trips/events over the past few months. First off.........

Chris and Zale decided that they were going to get married in Hawaii and my mom and dad made it possible for the family to enjoy a wonderful trip and wedding on Maui in May (thanks mom and dad :D ). It was a wonderful trip that we will always remember. Drew and I had a little snag getting there. When we got the airport Sunday morning to leave the flight had been delayed which would have meant that we would have missed our connecting flight in Phoenix to get to Maui. The lady from the airlines told us that if we could make it to LA we could would be able to get on a flight that would still make it to Maui that night. I decided that we should give it a try so we ran through the airport and found a southwest flight that went to Vegas and then to LA and we would have about 1 hour to make the connector to Maui. Everything seemed to be going well until we were about to land in LA and all of the sudden the plan pulled back up and circled over the ocean for about another 30+ minutes. When we finally landed there were fire trucks and ambulances all around us because we had lost one of our hydraulics and they were worried that when we landed the wheels wouldn't hold and we would skid along our belly on the runway. Obviously, that didn't happen and we were fine except for the fact that we didn't have enough time to make our next flight. We got to the ticket counter 5 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave and they wouldn't let us on. So we spent the night in LA. We were both pretty upset from the events of the whole day but still went to the beach to try and make the best of it.

After waking up at 4 in the morning to make our flight the next morning (with no bags) we finally made it to Maui. Even though it was stressful getting there we had an amazing time. It was the first trip Drew and I had really been on without the kids (thanks Joni for watching them). I think it made us realize we need to make a greater effort to take time for the two of us. It was so nice to go on a trip with my family. It is really only the 2nd time since we've been married that we've been on a trip with them and it was wonderful.

The wedding itself was wonderful. There was a little confusion with the man that married them - he had the wrong date. But after all of the initial confusion and stress it was so nice. Zale looked beautiful and it was a wonderful night. It was so nice to be able to get to know Zale's family better. I had tons of pictures so here are a couple for those who don't watch the slide show.

Drew trying to enjoy himself in LA

One of my favorites of Chris and Zale

Chris, Zale and Conner

Nate's info

Hi all! I know it has been forever since I posted and we have been traveling a ton. I will do my best to get it updated soon. However, I thought I would hurry and post a quick note about Nate. Nate (my brother-in-law) has asked me to update his blog for him while he is on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Anyone that is interested in his current status can check it out here.

Brooke :)

5 Mile Pass - 1st Place

He did it again! Drew had a race this weekend and took first place in his division. Unfortunately I chose not to attend this time because I think I would have been pushing my luck with the kids in the cold weather. I'm hoping to track down some pics to post later. :)

Updated MMS Blog

I just updated the MMS blog with some Mother's Day gift ideas. Here is a link or just keep reading below.

Great Gifts for Mother’s Day!

I can’t believe that Mother’s Day has already snuck up on us! For the mother’s in my life I have created a tradition of giving them an empty scrapbook and then for every holiday/birthday I give them new pages to fill it with. With MMS it makes it so simple. I’ll I have to do is create one page and I have 3 books filled (mine, my mother’s, and my mother-in-law’s). There are tons of great designs and templates to choose from in the shop – make sure you check them out. Here is a page I did last year for Mother’s day. I used A Mother’s Life from the Ette’s and Company.

Another great gift idea that I think any mother would love is a brag book. I created some brag books for Grandparents this last Christmas and they were a hit. Simply take a template pack and you already have a starting point for a book. Here are some sample pages from the books I created. I used the Grandparent’s Brag Book from Miriam Lima. Once your book is created simply use the book option to have them printed. However, if you are like me and wait to the last moment to get things done, there is another option. Simply create your pages in a landscape format and print them as 4×6’s at your local print shop. Then go to your local store and find a cute 4×6 picture album and WHOLA!

Don’t make it complicated. Keep it simple and focus on the pictures and you can create an amazing gift in a flash!

Happy Scrapping and Mother’s Day!

Brooke